THOMAS CLARK AND SOMERSET PLANTS. 311 



In conclusion, I have to express my great indebtedness to 

 Messrs. H. N. Dixon and M. B. Slater for much assistance in the 

 determination of doubtful and critical plants. 



THOMAS CLARK AND SOMERSET PLANTS. 

 By Harold Stuart Thompson. 



As the name of Thomas Clark is omitted from the Biographical 

 Index of British and Irish Botanists, and from the supplement now 

 publishing, it may be well to give some notice of this accurate 

 observer, with especial reference to his work in Somerset. 



Born of a Quaker family who had lived in Mid- Somerset from 

 late in the seventeenth century, Thomas Clark first saw the light at 

 Greinton, Somerset, on November 16th, 1793, where his father, 

 also a botanist, was engaged in farming his own land. He was 

 educated at Thomas Thompson's school at Nether Compton, 

 Dorset, and in 1817 came to Bridgwater. In 1833 he married 

 Elizabeth Bull, of Street (Som.), and then built the pretty house 

 at Wembdon, which he named Halesleigh, where on May 26th, 

 1864, he died. 



Shortly after his death his large herbarium was unfortunately 

 scattered, and part of it cannot now be traced ; but I had an oppor- 

 tunity in 1891 of a hasty examination of the portion which still 

 remained in the hands of a member of the family, and was allowed 

 to take a large number of specimens as vouchers for old records. 

 That collection proved to be of exceptional interest and of great 

 value, for it contained good specimens of many Somersetshire 

 plants which had been recorded by Clark's friend the Rev. J. C. 

 Collins, of St. John's, Bridgwater, in the (Somerset) SuppJement to 

 Watson's New Botanists' Guide, 1837 ; some of which records had 

 been doubted by subsequent students of Somersetshire botany, for 

 the plants were not submitted to Mr. Watson for verification, and 

 some had apparently become extinct. 



Some years ago, through the kindness of the Rev. J. W. Collins, 

 I was enabled to make a complete copy of the manuscript notes of 

 Mr. Collins' late father, who made no herbarium, but added a 

 series of pencil notes in a copy of vol. i. of the 3rd ed. of Hooker's 

 British Flora, 1835. My object therefore is to use these notes in 

 conjunction with the specimens from Clark's herbarium, and to 

 attempt to throw some light upon a few of the hitherto doubted 

 records of Collins in the New Botanist's Guide; for we know that 

 Clark and Collins did much of their botanical work together. 

 Thomas Clark was a member of the Botanical Society of London, 

 contributed to the fourth volume of the Phijtologist (1851-3), and 

 one of the authorities quoted for Somerset and Dorset in Topo- 

 graphical Botany ; he was also the '' obhging correspondent " of Sir 

 W. J. Hooker with reference to the appearance in Somerset of the 

 two rare plants, Aconitum Napellns, still thriving luxuriantly in 

 1898, and Melissa officinalis. 



